“It’s like a piece of me is now gone.”
That was how Port Elizabeth soccer goalkeeper Godfrey de Kock described hearing the news of the passing of legendary England counterpart Gordon Banks earlier this week.
Banks, who was England's goalkeeper when they won the 1966 World Cup, died in his sleep, aged 81, his former English club Stoke City announced on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Weekend Post, De Kock, a former Swallows and Fairview Rovers goalkeeper, said a feeling of sadness had come over him when he found out about the passing of his former training partner and friend.
“I told myself I have to book a ticket to go to this funeral because meeting the World Cup-winning goalkeeper was the highlight of my football career.
“Sharing a field with him was something I will cherish for as long as I am alive,” De Kock said.
The opportunity came after de Kock, who played professionally for Glenville in Cape Town, met his idol Banks when the latter was a player for Cape Town side Hellenic.
“I had played in a match between Eastern Province and Western Province, and after the match I was approached by club representatives of Glenville, who wanted me to play for them, so I agreed,
“Around the same time, Hellenic had brought Banks down to come and play for them.
“Both teams trained at the Greenpoint Stadium and that is how we first came into contact with each other,” De Kock added.
Despite not being able to speak much in between training sessions, De Kock said the duo had managed to spend some time together and they had shared all things football, exchanging ideas, tactics and just general conversation.
“I looked at him as one of the greats, so for him to tell me that I should not stray from what I was doing, as I was as good as he was, made me feel as though I did something right,” De Kock said.
“He was a very down-to-earth person. One would never think of him as someone who won a World Cup at first appearance, unless you knew who he was.”
De Kock said a feeling of disappointment had come over him when he found out about Banks’s death, saying that he would have loved to meet him again, so many years after they first came into contact.
“He had a car accident which caused him to lose sight in one of his eyes and my wish and dream was to meet him again after that, but it never happened.
“Both of us have aged quite a bit, so he might not have remembered me, but I have the articles to prove that we did have meetings, and the things he taught me carried me through my entire career,” De Kock said.
De Kock said the state of football in the city and beyond left a lot to be desired, with not enough young talent making the step up to highest level.
“The state of football is very weak, especially in terms of player turnover. Players are not dedicated or committed enough.
“They think by playing up there they are going to get something.
“Football and any sport is training for seven days a week to make sure you are perfect, sometimes one might not be perfect, but you need to make sure that you are quite close to it,” he said.
He believes that too many young players want to get to the top too fast and this was one of the biggest reasons of the player shortfall.
“It’s a ladder, one must climb the ladder, step-by-step, otherwise you will miss one step, it could set you back a few more,” he added.
A shoe-maker by trade, the 73-year-old former goalkeeper still works at his daughter’s footwear company, RV Footwear, where he is involved in youth skills development.